Winter Is Almost Over.

It’s March 1st, and a storm is blowing in from the northwest. I could go on about how much I struggle with winter and can’t wait for spring, but if you have read any of my social media posts in the last couple of months, you would have picked up on that.

I will say that it has been a mild winter in Northern Utah, considering how much storm we have been getting. It was so mild, in fact, that I found myself in one of the colder parts of the area(possibly the country at times) in January on a photo shoot with a good friend of mine, Cody Christensen. Cody lives in a small ranching community in Northwest Utah called Woodruff that straddles the Wyoming border. There are winters there that don’t get above freezing for months. Another good friend of mine who is a rancher in Woodruff told me one time that the only reason to live there is to raise a cow. Other than that, it’s a terrible place to live. I don’t know about that; I love it there. But I also don’t have to live there through the winters.

It was great day! I drove up and got there around 12:00. Cody saddled a couple of colts, and we headed out east of town where he likes to ride the young horses out through the sagebrush-covered hills and valleys. Cody trains and shoes horses for a living. Whenever our schedules align, I like to spend some time with him and get some images of him riding his horses. It was a good shoot. This time of year, with the sun being low on the horizon, even midday can provide some decent light. Add to that the spectacular clouds in the sky that day, which made for some good images. 

As February rolled around I decided to have a little open house with my new home studio. I’ve sure enjoyed having it. It’s been nice to have somewhere to display my work and feel good about it. The open house was a great success. More people stopped by than I anticipated. Which is great on the one hand, but on the other hand, it was too hard to give everyone the amount of attention they deserved. Going forward, I’m not sure how to go about having folks over to look at the work. I don’t know how well it will work, but I would like to make appointments and see if that works out. I would be interested to hear what your thoughts are on that one.

A couple of weeks later, I found myself fooled by another mild spell of weather when a friend called me up and asked if I wanted to go to the Green River below Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Eastern Utah to fish. I am not one to turn down a day on the river with a fly rod in my hand and beer in the cupholder for a couple of days floating down the river in a drifboat looking for big brown trout. Without hesitation, I said yes. But when I said yes, it was in the 50s; by the time we went, it was storming and in the 30s. Albeit cold, it was still a blast! Fishing was decent. We caught just enough to keep it interesting and our minds off the fact that it was cold.

A big part of my life is my connection to my friends. I don’t know a lot about what makes humans happy. But I do know what can make them sad, and that’s not having close friends! A good friend of mine moved to Texas for work years ago, and we have stayed close. My wife and I flew down a couple of weeks ago to visit him and his family. This is something I wouldn’t normally talk about in a newsletter. But one of the experiences I had down there, I think, ties back to photography. 

First of all, If you like the Western way of life, I highly recommend you visit Fort Worth. They have fixed up the stockyards in old Fort Worth and turned it into a full-on Western experience with lots of shopping, bars, and dining options. It’s a cool place!  

Before we visited there, we made an unplanned stop in downtown Fort Worth at the Sid Richardson Art Museum. Sid Richardson was an American businessman and philanthropist from Texas. He acquired his fortune in the oil business from 1910 to 1950. He was also an avid Western art collector. He established a foundation for the museum and art to be open to the public for free to enjoy the collection. The collection of C.M. Russell and Fredrick Remington paintings is impressive. Both were legends of Western artwork in the early 1900s. 

Both C.M. Russell and Fredrick Remington were known for their ability to tell stories in their artwork, something I am striving to improve in my photography. Great photography is not just about making good exposures and compositions. It’s about storytelling. Sometimes, that’s as simple as a gesture from one horse to another. The detail in a photograph, the colors, or whatever it is, makes the viewer feel something! Having the opportunity to study the paintings was a bonus to the trip I wasn’t expecting! 

I’ve rambled on long enough. Spring is right around the corner, I’m excited to get out on the range and see the horses. I haven’t been out since last fall. I miss it out there and the horses. I’ve got some other ideas I’m thinking about exploring with my photography this summer. With all things in my life, we’ll see how it goes. 

Thank you to everyone who follows along and supports my work. It means the world to me!